Gridlock on Highway 1 in Shuswap angers market owner

The owner of DeMille’s Farm Market says his usually busy store is without customers, thanks to an incredibly long lineup of cars, trucks and semis on the Trans-Canada Highway waiting to cross the nearby Salmon River Bridge.

Thursday afternoon, he said westbound traffic was backed up east of 10th Avenue SW and the intersection of 10th and the highway was gridlocked because vehicles were unable to get onto the TCH.

He says this is the second day in a row work has begun at 7 a.m. to repair damage incurred in the 2018 freshet, without any notice being given prior to the work beginning.

“The store is dead, this is going to kill me,” he said, complaining that a long line of idling vehicles flies in the face of trying to reduce B.C.’s carbon footprint. “Why can’t they do this at night like they did in Kelowna when they did repairs there?”

DeMille says he was late for two appointments in downtown Salmon Arm Thursday, something he said would be happening to students, buses and workers.

“Hydro and cable notify people when they are going to do work; these people don’t take anyone into consideration.”

A request to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructre has so far not received a response.